A riotous, erotic kaleidoscope in which a Vietnamese refugee’s recollections of fleeing his country by boat become enmeshed with nostalgia and big-screen fantasies of shirtless pirates and sailors—including images of Brad Davis in Fassbinder’s Querelle.

Digital video, color, 11 min. DIR: Nguyen Tan Hoang.

Querelle (West Germany/France, 1982)

Adapted from Jean Genet’s novel Querelle de Brest (1947) into a cinematic world of pure mood and aesthetics, Querelle follows our titular (anti)hero on an odyssey of self-discovery by way of the dangerous drug deals, games of chance, and murderous exploits abundant in this French portside community. Released posthumously after his sudden death at age 37, Fassbinder’s fiercely personal swan song utilizes the hyper-artificiality of a classic studio sound stage to explore a visceral aspect of male relationships, depicted here as a constant navigation between violence and intimacy. As confrontational in its saturated hues as in its celebration of raw, sometimes absurd eroticism, this unapologetic final title in Fassbinder’s filmography cements his legacy as Germany’s ultimate provocateur.